This invention relates to motor vehicle body welding systems and more particularly to a framing station in which loosely assembled body components are precisely located and welded.
Palletized framing systems in which the loosely assembled body components are moved to and from the framing station on a pallet are preferred to prior art systems in which the body components are moved from station to station by various other conveying devices.
However, the palletized system suffers from tolerance stack-ups resulting from variations in the dimensioning of the pallets and/or from wear in the positioning devices utilized to position the pallet in the framing station. Specifically, in the past, pallet positioning in the framing station has been accomplished by locators on the base of the framing station coacting to precisely position the pallet in the framing station. The accuracy of this positioning and therefore the accuracy of the welding operations performed on the body components at the framing station is dependent on precise dimensioning of the pallets. However, as a practical matter, pallet dimensions vary and tolerance stack-ups develop with the result that the welding operations are imprecise. Tolerance stack-ups and resultant imprecise welding also occurs as a result of wear in the positioning devices utilized to accurately position the pallet in the framing station.